Bent Links Again

[Spiderman]

This may be a potentially stupid question so please bear with me. So, I thought I had basically fixed up everything wrong with the car I just bought including the bent links in the Spyder roof top. However, to my dismay, when raising the top today, one of my links bent yet again; these were new links I had ordered from UneedParts. What happened was one of the cords had caught on a bolt causing the link to bend back raising the top.

My question is: Will raising/lowering the top manually (by hand) help in reducing the incidence of bent links? Will I wear out the top motor or do any damage by raising/lowering the top each time? I could not find any specifics on this questions so I ask.

Thank You

 

[Tyeler18]

What bolt did it hit? It had to have been installed wrong for it to have done that. I just put the upgraded links from uneedparts in the spyder maybe a month ago and have had zero problems.

 

[Spiderman]

It was installed correctly, and worked perfectly about twice. The top went down perfectly, flush with the sill and actually, stopped leaking. When raising the top, there is this bolt/nook/hook that sticks out of the side and if you can recall, the kit includes a steel wire that attaches to the 3rd rib that caught on that hang out which caused the link to bend. So...when raising the top, it is important to keep an eye out and make sure that wire does not catch on anything!

Now, I will avoid using the electric top, rather raising it by hand so it does not catch on anything. I am just concerned that raising it by hand may/may not cause more wear to the electric motor.

 

[Tyeler18]

If you drilled right for that wire it won't hit anything.... We've used the top countless times now to make sure everything's working and it doesn't come near anything.

To use the manual top go in the trunk and on the driver side (I believe you have to remove a panel cover) there's a switch that says "manual" turn it and that will disengage the motor so you can do it by hand.